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Sugar Showcase: wMaps

On February 21st, we had our Sugar Showcase webinar highlighting wMaps, our Sugar Integration to Bing Maps. Using wMaps, you will be able to view Sugar accounts, contacts, leads, targets, opportunities or any other Sugar module plotted on a map. The maps generated are content rich and can incorporate details from your Sugar records directly on the maps.

Thank you to everyone who participated in this webinar. Below is the video recording, slide deck, and Q&A.

If you have questions about wMaps or would like an individual demo, feel free to contact us.

Agenda

Introduction

Use Cases

Search by Distance

Map Sugar Filtered Records

Map Current Record

Generate Driving Directions

Show Closest Records

Send to Mobile Device

Availability and Pricing

Sugar Showcase Q&A Session

Slide Deck

Questions & Answers

Q: You mentioned "stock" modules that you can use wMaps - but can you use wMaps on Custom Modules?
A: Currently you cannot. We have the stock modules, and we set up the geocoding on those, but currently you cannot use custom modules. We have that on our roadmap to be able to use any module, where you could also define what fields are your address fields that we would then use to geocode and calculate the directions.

Q: Why did you choose Bing Maps over Google Maps?
A: Google Maps is probably the most recognizable. However, it is a cost issue. When we started developing wMaps, we looked up the cost of the Google API versus the Bing API. If you need a commercial version of API for mapping, we found Google to be expensive whereas, Microsoft Bing had a price point that worked for us.

Q: It looks like you have to email the functionality so you can use it in mobile. Can you use wMaps directly in mobile?
A: In a limited way, the list closest functionality is available inside of a mobile. We don't have all the same tools of mobile to do custom development. We're getting there; Sugar is in beta for a mobile development kit which will allow us to mimic the functionality on mobile that we have on the desktop.

Currently, we have to trick out the system a little bit to get this working, so we've done that for the list closest, the maps panel on the detail page so you can see the closest record, but you cannot do all the same functionality. The way we thought it would work with the user would do their mapping research on their desktop and then send the emails to themselves to give them their call list or visit list. Or maybe an inside sales person or assistant would help them with the maps on the inside and send them their territory target.

Q: After initial installation and geocoding of records, do subsequently added records get geocoded automatically?
A: Yes, they do. So with wMaps, we include a geocoding service that's running as a scheduled job in Sugar. Typically we let it run during night times to not occupy any CPU cycles during the day. But at night, we go and look at any records that are not geocoded and submit them off to Bing and receive back the longitude and latitude information. That happens continuously.

Q: Can you use the module for cases? (For example, We create service records and route our technicians for service calls.)
A: Yes, you can use wMaps with Cases, since this is a module. For cases you have two options. (1) You can say that the case uses the address from its parent account record. So basically, the cases locates where account record is. (2) Or you can specify custom fields that are addresses for each case. Maybe you are going to a job site or something that's not related to the account address, it's a different address. Then you could create custom fields on the case (i.e. job site address). Then we could geocodes those fields instead of using the account record. That's the parent of the case.

Q: Does distance filters work for European postal codes or cities?
A: wMaps was initially developed for our customers so most of the use cases have been for the United States. Postal codes in different countries all work a bit differently, so we would have to spend time testing this. If this is a feature you are interested in please reach out to us and let us know.

Q: Can we combine multiple modules on the same map?
A: Currently no, however you can save maps. For instance, on an accounts module you want to save your A accounts on top of your B accounts on top of your C accounts, we allow you to save a map and to save multiple layers on top of it but it is all within the same module currently. (We did make a note see if we can investigate adding this as a feature).

Q: What if I want to generate directions from a specific address and not the one in the user profile?
A: Yes, when you specify a direction you can either generate the directions from the current record that you're looking at or from the user address. We assume that you are either starting from your office or home office and then ou would be using your user address to generate directions or you would start from maybe one of the records that you happen to be looking at, go to the record where you want to start from, and start the routing from the record that I am at.

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